Getting A DMCA Cease And Desist Letter For A Post Review On A Low Quality Product

Update 7/19/2013: This small battle over legal issues has finally been resolved since the website was turned back on and the domain names were given back. It was resolved when I called the Terms of Services department of Blue Host and tried to argue my point. They informed me that all that I had to do was to take down any information about the company that is making the claims, which would be two posts written in the earliest of the website’s development, and they would turn it back on. After weighing over the options, the only thing that I could do with the limited amount of options was to accept the terms that I was forced into. I turned off the 2 posts and the website was allowed to go back up. I hope this type of issue does not happen again and I am currently taking action to protect this website and make sure that DMCAs and other legal issues will not happen again.

Update 7/18/2013: I would get an email this day from the tech support department of BlueHost saying that they were forced to take down this website because the DMCA that was written was claiming that a Trademark rule was being affected, not a Copyright rule. I would seem that a counter-DMCA is only applicable and good for Copyright issues, not Trademark issues. I was not made aware of this fact since I am not a lawyer. I only did what was advised to me at the time yesterday when I called the sales or legal team through the BlueHost contact services.

Since the website was shut down as well as all of the other websites that I have, I had to give an email to all of the regular readers and loyal followers of this website with the following message…

As a loyal follower and reader of the Natural Height Growth website I have to inform you that the website has been currently suspended by the hosting company BlueHost.

This is due to a malicious act by the company who sell the (Product that is not named) named (Company that is not named) International Inc. based in Quebec, Canada.

They have sent a DMCA cease and desist letter claiming that I and the website Natural Height Growth have used their Trademark illegally and gone through the proper legal procedures to make sure that the negative review I wrote about their product is breaking a Trademark rule.

I followed the companies first request to take down the post which was a review of their main product claiming that it would not work as well they claimed on their sales webpage.

They would email BlueHost again asking that I take down another section of the website, the one about Scam Companies, which they are listed.

The 2nd one is information is not even my own but taken from the website Short Support so legally they have no way to really inforce it in the courts.

I sent BlueHost a counter DMCA request as instructed by the legal team whom I called but today they have taken the website down. It seems that the instructions that were given to me was wrong. DMCAs on trademark can not be replied with a counter DMCA. I only followed the directions.

Bluehost is afraid of legal action but they should not be. There is no way that a person or Organization who sells a horrible, possibly scam product on the internet would be able to make enough revenue or have deep enough pockets to take either me or BlueHost to court and win. What bluehost is doing is protecting themselves from civil suit.

I have no idea when the website will come up, if ever, but it seems that jealousy was the main culprit. Hopefully I will be able to bring the website back up within 2 months.

Update 7/17/2013: I would get another email today from my hosting service provider today where the people of this company who is selling a grow taller product online is again claiming that I am infringing on their copyright laws because I claimed on the Scam Companies section of the website which is actually information taken from another website. If they have a problem, the issue is not with me, it is with the other website since that website is the real source. However, this 2nd request from the company to BlueHost has pushed me over the edge on how greedy and malicious they are trying to be.

This is why I wrote a very long email to the sales department of the company with an Official Response in the title.

Email Title: Official Response To: Sales Department of Intended company

Your recent order to my hosting company for a DMCA forced me to learn much more about the legal issue behind this issue.

The first complaint seemed to have validity when I first got the email and I was ignorant of the legal aspects. I complied to your company’s request to be cautious and actually reviewed the entire situation. I took down the post to be civil.

Now your 2nd request which was not a formal DMCA and actually linked to a webpage whose information which is not mine but from the Short Support website (who I made sure to reference and cite) shows that you guys thought you can abuse the DMCA policy. On the 2nd request, you guys have absolutely no validity.

This is what the cult of Scientology has done to silence its critics who write bad things about them. Many people in the legal profession realize that this rule is being abused. and your company is doing just that.

I would assume that this (Company Who Will Not Be Named) company is a real company selling some type of Chinese based products. The Patent is probably real too. But you guys know as well as me that there is a 60% chance that in court, the judge will side with my side just based on the legal aspects.

(Update 6/14/2014: It turns out that this company does NOT have a real patent, but only a trademark claim, which I found and kept as a legal document. I looked at the patent databased on Canada and there is no mentioned or listing of any type of product developed by the company.)

I wrote a bad review for the product and you guys are trying to silence it. I am citing the Fair Use rule from the US. Since you guys appear to be a real company and have a product that may not be a complete scam, I will be willing to keep that 1 post in “private mode”.

I have filed a formal counter-DMCA against the company.

In the long term, any business that is based on selling a below average product which can not produce the results its consumers really hope for does not have a sustainable business model. I did NOT say your company sells a scam product but that it can not give the massive height increase that its customers are really hoping for.

You guys should have known that one day someone will come along to clean up this specific area of the internet and formalize it. It will no longer be in a “wild west” style where everything goes and any height increase e-product will be bought by desperate individuals hoping for any answer.

This how I see the situation. If (Company that is not named) has big enough pockets to file a suit against me, then a counter-suit will come directly after the end of the first suit, since I would know that this corporation has deep pockets to take from. I will go after all of this company’s asset.

Cool your heads, If you guys consider yourselves smart, you would use SEO, PR, and company branding to make your company better and stronger and figure out how to push your websites up higher in the Google and Bing search rankings.

If however your primary emotion on this issue is a zero-sum, competition way of thinking, with the primary motive being vindictiveness and revenge for me stating the most obvious, you can not win in any arena, in the courts, in business, or in life, at least in the short time. I ask that you guys review your own intentions and emotions.

If you think the only way for your company to ‘win’ is to attack the person who is actually trying to make the internet and the world a better place, by giving actual real hope to desperate young teenagers who feel low self-esteem, and educating them as well, then ultimately your business will fail.

I can show you guys at least a dozen emails from people who write from all across the world thanking me for creating this website which is being so helpful. They tell me how tired they are of all the scams and fake product on the internet and feel extremely thankful and grateful that I have created this authority website that they can turn to for this issue.

Maybe it was that back in 2006 when the internet was younger people were more naive and ignorant of the facts of what it really takes to become taller and that allowed for the company to do really well in sale but in 2013 the people are becoming smarter. Sales numbers might still be there but mostly likely they would be decreasing over time.

At the end of the day I would actually be even willing to help you guys and promote the book if it was helpful and rewritten. I was even going to write a review on the Patent you guys have listed to possibly show that your product is based on real science and maybe the (Company that is not named) is actually valid and shows high efficacy.

I have been wrong before. I had stated that the organization Biomedical Growth Research Initiative was a scam in the beginning, but after exchanging emails with Harald who is its representative and answering his questions, I wrote a public formal apology stating that his organization was real and I have been helping promote the organization ever since.

So show me the patent and maybe I can look over the science and validate your product.

Like I said to Tyler from Height Quest and every other website who is in this endeavor, ultimately our goal is to possibly find a solution.

This endeavor is too big for one person or even one corporation to take on. We should be working together and helping each other, not fighting.

I have always stated that maybe we will not find anything even after all the work, but at least we can create a resource that all people should be able to turn to so that all of their concerns, issues, and questions can be answered.

That is why Tyler is actually supposed to come and join me in running the website some time this month. We are going to combine our minds together.

The real key to winning in business is to become better then any one else and provide more value to your clients and customers than anyone else. I refer to the Anthony Robbins video below.

I will not fight you guys, but if you guys choose to throw the first punch, we will be sure to bring everything we have. Cool your heads. Be professional, Give value and make a contribution to the world.

Original Post 7/16/2013:

Just yesterday I got a message to my personal email inbox from the website’s host provider BlueHost’s Legal Department stating that someone has issued an official cease and desist letter and asked that I take down a post of a review of a product they are selling.

Due to something known as the Digital Millenium Copyright Actmany corporations can send this DMCA letters to people who they wish to shut up. The Church of Scientology does this practice all the time. Due to how much money Scientology has, they have the financial resources to actually have a bit behind their bark. They can take multiple people to court and play the big bully who pushes the smaller organizations around.

I will not edit anything of the old post when I actually reviews the product. I commend these people because they are using the most modern Internet Marketing tools to get backlinks and use SEO techniques to push their website up. However the product they sell does not produce the results that the people who buy from them are hoping for.

Lie #1

They claim to Bluehost that they have tried to contact me multiple times. I have NEVER gotten an email from they s and I actually went back through the email naturalheightgrowth@gmail.com inbox and search it carefully to see if they did indeed give something to me. There has been nothing.

Lie #2

They claim that I purposely hide the ‘contact me’ information. It is on the right sidebar. It was originally at the top right corner but it is now at the bottom right corner. If they took even 2 minute to search, it would have been easily found.

Note: If we were to go to court, I will show the judge this post I am going to post right now and ask that they use the Wayback Machine to check the layout of what this website looked like for the last 3-6 months and they will notice that the contact information was consistently on the right sidebar. Even 17 year old kids have been able to message me. How is it possible that these people who are supposed to be smart enough to run a ‘company’ not be able to find that text on the ride sidebar.?

I don’t want to say what exactly is the name of the product because it will be less antagonistic to these people. The fact is that this company and the product it sells has been listed under the list of companies which are scams on the website Short Support.

I have checked the company and it is NOT registered in the Canada Company Database. Judging by the name of the company, I would suspect that you are Chinese or associated with some Chinese based product. I would guess that it is probably registered and valid since there is a lot of information on the product cited.

I have looked up that patent they referenced and it is NOT in the records for Google Patents. “Pharmaceutical preparations for the treatment of growth dysfunction; Synthetic peptides for pharmaceutical purposes; Vitamin and mineral preparations for use as ingredients in the food and pharmaceutical industry.” I checked the Canadian Intellectual Property Officeand it is not there either.It could be that because this company is based in Canada and I should be using another directory but I can’t find enough information about this company.

Just because these people have a legal company means nothing. I have a legal company too. I know enough of the legal stuff to show that I have not infringed on any of the copyright rules. I personally have done Trademarks before for my own US based company’s name and product. The fees are around $200-$800. I also know people who have done Patents before, those also taking thousands overall, in the range of $1000 – $20,000. I have already done research years ago to know how much a lawsuit from beginning to end will cost, including all of the attorney fees, which is usually around $50,000-200,000.

If these people want to waste both party’s (mine and their’s) money and time on legal action, then I will take them on. However, I think there are better, more useful, and more productive things that we can be doing with our lives.

I may not be in the USA or Canada, but I have NO problem in flying back and going to court to prove these people have a company that is selling ineffective products and that I did not break any rules citing the Fair Use rule.

I don’t know how much the legal fees of hiring a lawyer is in Canada, but I have a good idea on how much it would cost to do it in the US. If you guys file a suit against me, there is no way you guys can win, legally, through technicalities, or due to plan morals. The judge will side with me since I have read the wording on the Fair Use rule for 17 US107. Maybe due to the fact they are in Canada the Fair Use rule is interpreted differently but in the US, I know I am correct.

Plus, if I get angry enough at these people for wasting my money and time to go through a stupid legal battle, I will at some point do a counter-suit on these people.

There are already enough Scams trying to cheat people who wish to grow taller out in the internet which makes the internet a worse off place. This company and the product is only making things worse.

My website Natural Height Growth is one of the only honest websites on the purpose on trying to figure out how to help people increase their height, if that is even possible. My website is making the internet a more honest, transparent, better place.

If these men from Canada even took the time to read the actual post, then they would realize that I never claimed that the product they offer is a total scam. My point which is expressed as one of the last sentences is that the product can not deliver the type of results that they claim. Maybe a person can gain 1/2 an inch of height when they are in their 30s from the instructional exercise manual, but they will not gain the 3-4 inches that they really want.

I will talk to the BlueHost representatives about this issue tomorrow and see what needs to be done.

Hey Michael I wouldn’t worry about any legal threats you might have going on now.

I had a few legal problems from website hosting all the way to surgery cost(not height gain i wish)

I owed a private hospital $3,500. I got over 9 legal letters from the hospital, and every one of them was like this time if you dont pretty much reply or pay you we will go to court.. I haven’t replied yet not only did I not pay anything + they haven’t sent any more letters … ( bare in mind I did offer to pay the night after staying in the hospital but they said no we will mail you the quote, I didnt have time and just eventually didnt give a shit)

I hate legal issues with education and they still only sent me 2 letters with legal action from lawyers .

I know the grammar here is terrible I’m simply at work reading your posts like normal and this one got me frustrated. THEY WILL NOT DO SHIT, you will get emails and what not from even lawyers but its just a tactic to scare you..

Anyway I’ve posted previously about my height gain over a long 18-20 week period, I’m also posting to say that I infact after stopping my exercises have lost about 1cm in height from my original height gain from 181cm to 185-6cm. I’m now standing at 184 during a normal day.

How To Get In Contact With Us

While we may now not be able to (or maybe never) provide you guys that magic pill everyone wishes for to grow taller instantly, we still want to help in anyway possible. Click the button below to submit any messages on how else we can improve your experiences while on the website. We are here to serve you.Constructive criticism only.

What This Website Is About

This website is a research based website, and currently has nothing for sale. We started out as a website looking for a way to help people grow taller, but originally focused too much on talking about other businesses and their products. That has forced the website into multiple uncomfortable legal issues. Those will be resolved. We no longer do that. Our focus is now on the research, the reporting, and the science.